Caldera (Salzburg)

Caldera by Tony Cragg (2008)

The caldera is a bronze sculpture on Makartplatz in the old town of Salzburg . The work of art was created by the English visual artist Tony Cragg as part of the Salzburg 2008 art project .

The artwork

The seventh work for the Salzburg art project is a five-meter-high sculpture made of patinated bronze . The sculpture is called "Caldera", a term that originally comes from geology and denotes a cauldron-shaped volcanic crater . In English , however, the term also allows poetic connotations . With this, the artist wants to point out the energetic space and the matter that emerged in a dramatic way. The name should also refer to the basin location of the city of Salzburg.

The caldera is supposed to represent a landscape made of bronze, with projections and recesses and shapes that push each other like tectonic layers. Depending on the location and direction of view, human profiles can also be recognized that suddenly appear, interact spatially and just as suddenly disappear again. Tony Cragg sees his work of art as “mental landscapes”. The work of art can be walked on and so the “mental landscape” can also be experienced from the inside.

Cragg chose the historic Makartplatz as the installation site for his work of art in order to counter the functional and practical design of the square with the purposefulness of art. Today, Makartplatz is heavily influenced by traffic, especially the streets, the signs and the many cars, which, according to the artist, represents a "huge volume of colors and material". With his sculpture he would like to confront the intellectual claim of openness of thought, the original formal language and the sophisticated materiality of art with the appearance of Makartplatz. With the work of art he would like to give new spiritual forms back to everyday practicality.

background

This work of art can be traced back to an initiative of the Salzburg Foundation. This was founded in 2001 as a private initiative and sees itself as a modern form of patronage . This project, which does not receive any public subsidies, aims to inspire international artists for the city of Salzburg and to encourage them to create a specific work of art for a location of their choice. The invitation was followed by artists such as Manfred Wakolbinger , Anselm Kiefer , Mario Merz , Marina Abramović , Markus Lüpertz , James Turrell , Stephan Balkenhol , Christian Boltanski , Jaume Plensa , Brigitte Kowanz , Erwin Wurm and Tony Cragg.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Information board at Makartplatz
2. ^ Salzburg Foundation

Web links

Commons : Caldera  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 47 ° 48 ′ 10.7 "  N , 13 ° 2 ′ 38.4"  E